updated 11:10 am EST, Mon December 21, 2009

List concentrates exclusively on financials

Apple's Steve Jobs has placed first in a CEO list compiled by the INSEAD business school. Set to be published in the next issue of the Harvard Business Review, the list is based on a collection of about 2,000 CEOs, and does not measure people by popularity or ethics but simply their financial importance to a company and its shareholders. Ranking is determined by a combination of change in market cap, industry-adjusted total shareholder return (TSR) and country-adjusted TSR.

Second place belongs to Yun Jong-Yong, head of South Korea's Samsung Electronics, while third is owned by Alexey Miller, the head of Russian gas producer Gazprom. Other notable tech names in the top 10 include Cisco's John Chambers (#4), Amazon's Jeff Bezos (#7), eBay's Margaret Whitman (#8) and Google's Eric Schmidt (#9). Many of the top 30 executives originate from the United States, though countries such as Brazil, Canada and Japan are also represented.

And Where Is . . .

Why not Jeff Bezos of Amazon

Over the past year Amazon and Jeff Bezos have certainly given investors far better returns than Apple and Steve Jobs have done for investors. They say that the Kindle is selling in very large numbers which is driving up Amazon's share price daily. Apple doesn't even have a large-screen eReader device and the rumored tablet device probably doesn't exist. And even if it was built, only 2% of the U.S. population could afford it. Steve Jobs had said that people don't even read anymore and yet all the news media talks about are eReaders and their importance to the book, magazine and newspaper industry. If Amazon comes out with a color eReader, Amazon will go right past Apple in six months or so.

and...

who are these people (A European/Asian business school. Wow.) and why are they wasting time determining CEO importance?

But since Steve is on top, is this proof that he is extremely important to the running of Apple, and, as such, concerns and questions about things like his health are important and should investors should be kept informed and not hidden behind some lame excuse about 'privacy'?

Meg?

@testudo

Testudo, these people, as you call them, INSEAD, is one of the top business schools in the world (sometimes considered the top, but always a top 5 globally).

The funny thing is, Steve's on top, yet Apple did quite well while he was gone, and everyone was saying how surprising it was to see Apple holding up so well and the stock performing well with him gone and the rumors flying about him getting a liver transplant. That sort of debunked the idea that Apple will die when Steve is gone.